Sport in Australia is popular and widespread. Testament to this is the level of achievement in the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games as well as other international sporting events in comparison to the population of the country, particularly in the areas of water sports and team sports. The climate and economy provide ideal conditions for Australians to participate and watch sports.

Sport in Australia is strongly supported by all levels of government. In 2000-01, total government funding for sport and recreation activities was $2,124.2 million (AUD). Of this, the Commonwealth Government contributed $19.89 million (9%), state and territory governments contributed $875.2 million (41%) and local governments provided $1,050.1 million (49%). The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) is the federal government body responsible for distributing funds and providing strategic guidance for sporting activity in Australia and operates the Australian Institute of Sport. Each state and territory in Australia also have agencies responsible for sport and recreation policy. Each state and territory also operation their own institutes and academies of sport.

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The music of Australia ranges across a broad spectrum of styles and genres. Some modern trends in Australian music is based on, or concurrent with, similar trends from the United States or United Kingdom and elsewhere, and the music is generally influenced by cross pollination of music from elsewhere; though traditional indigenous Australian music is unique, as it dates back more than 60,000 years to the prehistory of Australia and continues the ancient songlines through contemporary artists as diverse as: Jimmy Little, Warumpi Band, Yothu Yindi, Tiddas, Wild Water, Christine Anu, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, Saltwater Band, Nabarlek, Nokturnl, the Pigram Brothers, Coloured Stone, Blekbala Mujik, Kev Carmody, Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter.

A folk club movement developed in Australia under the influence of those in Great Britain. A number of British singers have spent periods in Australia and have included Australian material in their repertoires, e.g. A. L. Lloyd, Martin Wyndham-Read and Eric Bogle.

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Since 1788, the primary basis of Australian culture has been Anglo-Celtic Western culture. Distinctive Australian cultural features have also arisen from the country’s natural environment and Indigenous cultures. Since the middle of the 20th century, Australian culture has been strongly influenced by American popular culture, particularly through television and cinema. Other cultural influences are from neighbouring Asian countries, and through large-scale immigration from non-English-speaking countries.

Australian visual arts are thought to have begun with the cave and bark paintings of its Indigenous peoples. The traditions of Indigenous Australians are largely transmitted orally and are tied to ceremony and the telling of the stories of the Dreamtime. From the time of European settlement, a theme in Australian art has been the Australian landscape, seen for example in the works of Albert Namatjira, Arthur Streeton and others associated with the Heidelberg School, and Arthur Boyd. The country’s landscape remains sources of inspiration for Australian modernist artists; it has been depicted in acclaimed works by artists such as Sidney Nolan, Grace Cossington Smith, Fred Williams, Sydney Long, and Clifton Pugh. Australian artists influenced by the modern American and European art include cubist Grace Crowley, surrealist James Gleeson, abstract expressionist Brett Whiteley, and pop artist Martin Sharp. The National Gallery of Australia and the various state galleries maintain Australian and overseas collections, from early in the 20th century until the present.

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Education in Australia is primarily the responsibility of states and territories. Each state or territory government provides the funding and regulates the public and private schools with its governing area, The federal government funds the universities, but these set their own curriculum. Generally, education in Australia follows the three-tier model which includes primary education (primary schools), followed by secondary education (secondary schools/high schools) and tertiary education (universities and/or TAFE Colleges).

The Programme for International Student Assessment for 2006 ranks the Australian education system as 6th on a worldwide scale for Reading, 8th for Science and 13th for Mathematics. The Education Index, published with the UN’s Human Development Index in 2008, based on data from 2006, lists Australia as 0.993, amongst the highest in the world, tied for first with Denmark, Finland and New Zealand.

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Australia has no state religion. In the 2006 census, 64% of Australians listed themselves as Christian, including 26% as Roman Catholic and 19% as Anglican. About 19% of the population cited "No religion" (which includes humanism, atheism, agnosticism, and rationalism), which was the fastest-growing group (refer difference in census 2006 versus census 2001 results) and a further 12% did not answer (the question is optional) or did not give a response adequate for interpretation.

The second largest religion in Australia is Buddhism (2.1%), followed by Islam (1.7%), Hinduism (0.8%) and Judaism (0.5%). Overall, fewer than 6% of Australians identify with non-Christian religions. Weekly attendance at church services in 2004 was about 1.5 million: about 7.5% of the population. Religion does not play a central role in the lives of much of the population, although young adults are somewhat more religious than their elders.

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Australian English (AusE, AuE, AusEng, en-AU) is the form of the English language spoken in Australia.

Australian English began diverging from British English shortly after the foundation of the Australian penal colony of New South Wales in 1788. British convicts sent there, (including Cockneys from London), came mostly from large English cities. They were joined by free settlers, military personnel and administrators, often with their families. However, a large part of the convict body were Irish, with at least 25% directly from Ireland, and others indirectly via Britain. There were other populations of convicts from non-English speaking areas of Britain, such as the Welsh and Scots. English was not spoken, or was poorly spoken, by a large part of the convict population and the dominant English input was that of Cockney from South-East England.

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English is the national language. Australian English is the form of the English language spoken in Australia. It has a unique accent and a small number of peculiar terms, some of which have found their way into other dialects of the English-speaking world. Australian English has less internal dialectal variation than either British English or American English. Grammar and spelling are largely based on those of British English.

According to the 2001 census, English is the only language spoken in the home for around 80% of the population. The next most common languages spoken at home are Chinese (2.1%), Italian (1.9%), and Greek (1.4%).

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Immigration to the Australian continent is estimated to have begun around 50,000 years ago when the ancestors of Australian Aborigines arrived on the continent via the islands of the Malay Archipelago and New Guinea.

Europe bananaseeans first landed in the 1600s and 1700s, but colonization only started in 1788.

The overall level of immigration has grown substantially during the last decade and a half. Net overseas migration increased from 30,042 in 1992-93 to 177,600 in 2006-07. This is the highest level on record. The largest components of immigration are the skills migration and family re-union programs. In recent years the mandatory detention of unauthorized arrivals by boat has generated great levels of controversy.

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The demographics of Australia covers basic statistics, most populous cities, ethnicity and religion. The population of Australia is estimated to be 22,196,162 as of 22 March 2010. Australia is the 51st most populous country in the world. Its population is concentrated mainly in urban areas.

Australia’s population has grown from an estimated population of about 350,000 at the time of British settlement in 1788 due to numerous waves of immigration during the period since. Also due to immigration, the European component of the population is declining as a percentage, as it is in many other Western countries.

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Median household income is commonly used to measure the relative prosperity of populations in different geographical locations. It divides households into two equal segments with the first half of households earning less than the median household income and the other half earning more.

Since 2000 household incomes in Australia and New Zealand have been growing rapidly and in 2007 incomes were comparable to those in the United States.

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